Nexus 5X vs. OnePlus X – Which “X” Do You Prefer?

BY Lestoc Costea /November 11, 2015 10:05 am

This is OnePlus’ third phone, but it doesn’t have anything in common with the two flagships which had a Sandstone black texture on their backs. This model has also weaker specs and it’s available via the confusing invitation system. Google has returned in force as well, but this time not with a tablet and a phone, but with a successor for the Nexus 6 phablet and Nexus 5 mid-tier smartphone. We’ll compare the OnePlus X with the Nexus 5X and see if they have anything in common.

Designs and Displays

While the OnePlus 2 retained the Sandstone black texture from its predecessor and came with a new shape, rectangular and with rounded corners, plus a metal frame around the sides (with parallel lines), the OnePlus X has two variants of materials on its back – Onyx, which is a black glass, and Ceramic, which comes in only 10,000 units and it’s the premium version, it’s heavier, weighting 160grams, while the other model weights 138grams. However, the dimensions are standard, 140x69x6.9mm, for both devices, and the screen measures 5-inch, using Samsung’s AMOLED panel with a Full HD resolution of 1080x1920pixels at 441ppi.

The Nexus 5X isn’t as pretty as the Nexus 6P, whose exterior is made of aluminum, but it’s an improvement over the previous Nexus 5, which had a floating arc design. This time, LG opted for a rectangular body made of plastic, as usual, and below the rear camera located in the top center is found a brand new fingerprint scanner. The device is larger, measuring 147×72.6×7.9mm, but it’s lighter at 136grams because of the polycarbonate material. As for the screen, its diagonal measures 5.2-inch and supports a Full HD resolution as well, but it’s not as sharp because the pixel density is lower at 424ppi.

Hardware

The OnePlus X has the internal configuration of a 2014 flagship, featuring a 32bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset which runs with a quad core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, and which is backed by 3GB of RAM and Adreno 330 graphics. The phone included an internal memory with a capacity of 16GB, which can go up to 128GB, but you’ll sacrifice the second SIM slot.

The Nexus 5X can compete with many high end devices which are powered by a 64bit Qualcomm processor. This model doesn’t come with the latest Snapdragon 810 octa core processor, but with the previous Snapdragon 808 model with four cores running at 1.44GHz and two cores running at 1.82GHz. Also, the phone uses Adreno 418 graphics, but the games run pretty great, even if the Nexus 5X houses only 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop here. If we’re referring to the internal memory, it’s unexpandable, but at least it comes in two variants of 16GB and 32GB.

Cameras and Batteries

The OnePlus X will not make regret the decision to buy it, because it will take high quality images with the 13MP back sensor which supports phase detection autofocus, LED flash and HDR, but its recording capabilities are limited to 1080p@30fps. The front camera is very advanced, though, supporting a resolution of 8MP, but the battery isn’t very large and its capacity is 2525 mAh.

The Nexus 5X does a good job with its 12.3MP main camera which offers dual-LED (dual tone) flash, HDR and supports a 1.55µm pixel size, but it can capture 2160p videos @30fps. Many expensive smartphones come with a 5MP front camera, and the Nexus 5X is challenging these devices with the selfies it provides for its users. The battery isn’t that big either, but it performs better since it has a capacity of 2700mAh.